Temporal Touch
by Golden Lunar Eclipse
Summary: After I wrote it, I thought of Valerie Gray... and Clockwork. Purely platonic, of course.


GLE – This is a poem I wrote a couple of days ago, that had nothing to do with Danny Phantom. After re-reading it a few times, I saw a connection to two characters; Valerie and Clockwork. I began considering writing a one-shot, but partway through planning it, decided against doing so. I'll share with you what I thought about it afterwards, but of course, the poem is open to your own interpretation and imagination.

And now, for the usual: I don't own Danny Phantom, etc. I just like to have fun, like all of you reading this.

* * *

. . . . -(-)- . . . . .

Temporal Touch

An echoing sob  
. . . . in the night  
Unhidden  
. . . . from ear's sight  
She fears her secret  
. . . . tears revealed  
While in distress  
. . . . she herself sealed

Beyond the substance  
. . . . deep inside  
She pushes forward  
. . . . tries to hide  
Duality has stretched  
. . . . her taught  
As desires and escapes  
. . . . have fought

The hours draw out  
The moon begins to wane  
A muffled shout  
Intangible, insane

With exhausted eyes  
Free from her disguise  
To Time's face her mercy  
She delivers in defeat

But Time won't accept  
Her gesture with his hands  
Since by her own feet  
She must be the one who stands

_The hard things  
_. . . . _in life  
Are not a  
_. . . . _sacrifice  
But forgiving yourself  
_. . . . _for your regrets  
And accepting your flaws  
_. . . . _with love and tenderness_

He leaves the choice  
. . . . up to her

* * *

This is what the one-shot would've looked like:  
(but again, the way you view the poem is up to you)  
Valerie ends up in the Ghost Zone, after getting in the middle of a fight between Walker (and his minions) and Wulf, who transports her there. She stumbles across Clockwork's lair and (after losing a battle to him, and developing a small level of reverence and respect), talks with him. 

She's not ready to trust him, saying defensively that he's trying to trick her, like how Phantom always tries to trick her. Clockwork points out that not all ghosts can be trusted, the same as not all humans can be trusted either, but there are some on both sides who can be relied on. He doesn't tell her anything about Phantom, but he does get her thinking about who she is, and what she's doing. He returns her to her room in the human world.

A month later, after a terrible week (probably involving something isolating and embarrassing socially – the A club being mean – also involving losses to ghosts) and a particularly hard day where in the process of saving some people, she accidentally destroys a building and the blame is all on her, with no "thanks for saving my life", just "you ruined it!" (hmm, sound familiar?). She starts to question everything she does, and then she thinks about Clockwork. She wants to talk to him again and finds her way back into the Ghost Zone.

She asks him for his advice in making a huge decision (something along the lines of: continue ghost hunting, don't continue ghost hunting). He refuses. Instead, he asks her questions that lead her to her own answer. _What is it that you want? Are you really happy with that option? Once you've made your choice, stick to it – there is no reason you should not feel confident about that, if that is what you decide…_

And she chooses…

* * *

Another side note: Near the beginning, I would have had Valerie mention that she's never actually destroyed a ghost – she's been saving that honor for Phantom. When she confronts Clockwork for the first time, that issue comes up. Danny would not have appeared physically at all in the fic, but he would have been mentioned (mostly his ghostly ego, not so much his human side, if at all… maybe briefly).

* * *

Well, that is all. I hope you liked the poem. For any of you confused that I'm still "writing stories" after I said that I would discontinue doing so, I put poetry into a separate category. I dislike writing 'cause it takes me forever, but I love writing poetry 'cause it generally flows out of me (heh, whether I want it to or not), and it's done in under 10 minutes. I'll get around to finishing _Do Superheroes Exist?_ probably sometime close to Christmas, since I'm pretty busy until then. Take care, all! And Happy Thanksgiving to you fellow Canadians! 


End file.
